Binance, one of the world's leading crypto exchanges, recently gained significant attention globally as the firm announced plans to discontinue all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services following increased scrutiny faced by CEX in Nigeria.
Amid the latest crackdown on crypto exchanges in the aforementioned West African country, Binance appears to be facing increasing pressure as a result of its previous laws across the country.
Following a legal dispute with Nigerian regulatory bodies in recent days, CEX has finally announced plans to discontinue some services following concerns of currency manipulation.
Based on a statement issued by Binance today, March 5, the firm urges users to withdraw NGN, trade NGN assets, or convert NGN to crypto before the upcoming service shutdown. Starting March 8 at 08:00 UTC, remaining balances in user accounts will be automatically converted to USDT, based on the exchange rate listed by the firm in its statement, according to Binance's announcement.
Meanwhile, CEX also plans to remove all existing NGN spot trading pairs from March 7. All open spot orders will be automatically closed when trading of the relevant pair is stopped.
In addition, various other announcements in the statement include the services on Binance Convert, Binance P2P, Auto Invest, and Binance Pay that will be affected by the aforementioned service termination.
In line with the recent authorities raids experienced in Nigeria, Binance is facing regulatory scrutiny. Binance is committed to demonstrating efforts to ensure compliance with laws throughout the country, reaffirming its commitment to work with local authorities.
However, it soon hit a snag, with Nigerian executive-arm Binance detained in a regulatory raid. While rumors of a $10 billion fine for Binance haunt the crypto market, Nigerian authorities have denied any such statements fueling speculation about the country's crypto raid.
In addition, Nigeria is also taking action against leading exchanges such as Kraken and Coinbase, in line with the scrutiny faced by Binance.
